University spokesman, Jeff Hanna, says canceling classes 'is not the only way, or even necessarily the most meaningful way,' to demonstrate respect.
View full sizeDr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his "I have a dream" speech in front of tens of thousands at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.They are concerned, in part, that the day commemorating King will be overshadowed by events three days later to mark the birthday of Robert E. Lee.
The proximity of the two occasions poses a particular challenge for Virginia and for the university in Lexington named in equal parts for the founding father and the Confederate commander. Lee served as the school’s president after the Civil War and set it on a course toward national prestige in the liberal arts.
Virginians, for more than a decade after the 1986 advent of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, have celebrated the births of the civil rights icon and Confederate generals Lee and Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson on the same day. (Jackson, too, was born in mid-January.) In 2000, Lee-Jackson-King Day was split into two holidays, one for the generals on a Friday, the other for the civil rights leader on the following Monday.
Most universities in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia will close for the King holiday. Washington and Lee has a busy week of MLK-related events planned, but no holiday. The private liberal arts college doesn’t close for Labor Day or Veterans Day, either.
The programming reflects a “desire to respect and honor Dr. King’s legacy on MLK Day,” Jeff Hanna, a university spokesman, said in a statement. “We believe that canceling classes is not the only way, or even necessarily the most meaningful way, to demonstrate that respect.”